Abstract

An architecture and signal processing for an imaging laser radar has previously been described¹ which uses a transmitter array and a spatially integrating receiver. The light reflected by an irradiated object is sensed and the time dependent signal processed so that each pair of aperture locations of the transmitter yields the Fourier transform of the object at a corresponding spatial frequency. In the case of a redundant transmitter array, the image computed from the observed Fourier transform formally corresponds to that of an object under partially coherent irradiation from a source having the same size, shape, and location as the receiver. This implies a reduction in coherent artifacts independently of object surface statistics. Image behavior in the case of nonredundance of the transmitter array has no conventional optics analog, and lower signal-to-noise ratios for speckle noise suppression.

© 1991 Optical Society of America